Preparing masters students for teaching in higher education:

a new route to enhanced employability?

Lorraine Allibone (l.allibone@kingston.ac.uk)

Steve May (s.may@kingston.ac.uk)

Hendrik van der Sluis (h.vandersluis@kingston.ac.uk)

Available at: http://goo.gl/MhN4w

Setting a context

• Brand (2007) argues that current frameworks reflect a narrow view of what constitutes a teacher

• Delivered by Academic Development Centre

• Employability a KU and sector wide concern

• KU course two cohorts take PgCLTHE: students and staff

Validated courses

MA in Design or MA in Fine Art with Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

The PgCLTHE modules offer 60 of the total 180 credits

MFA in Creative Writing

The PGCLTHE as a stand alone qualification alongside their MFA credits

The Programme

• 4 modules (15 credits each)

• Introduction to L & T in HE

• Developing teaching Practice and Supporting Students

• Assessment and Feedback in HE

• Curriculum Development and Evaluation in HE

Aims of the study:

• To assess student perceptions about the challenges and benefits of the course

• To identify issues arising from cross disciplinary and departmental collaboration

• To inform ongoing development of the Masters route with the employability agenda in mind

• To assess staff perceptions about the value of the course

Methodology

Qualitative approach

Sample:

ADC staff, students, and faculty staff

Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews (Simons, H. 2009), focus groups (Powell, R.A. & Single, H.M. 1996)

Ethics:

Informed consent was obtained from all participants and data represented here, and elsewhere, are anonymised

Methodology continued

Transcripts coded for key themes relating to the aims: Insights to experience

Cross disciplinary collaboration

Impact on employability

NVivo and Leximancer software is being used to assist in coding and quantifying the findings for other emergent recurring themes (ongoing).

 

Data Collection

• MA and MFA students year one cohort (interviews: n = 3)

• MA and MFA students mixed cohorts (focus group: n = 7)

• MFA student cohort only (interviews: n = 1)

• ADC staff ( interviews: n = 2)

• Faculty Staff (interviews: (n = 2)

Key themes

Recognised benefits of the programme

“It's brilliant for someone who wants to be a member of staff because not only do you how it should be done correctly but actually you're seeing the pitfalls of things” (MA student)

Key themes

Value of the qualification

“the only reason they would have me is because I had the qualification, because they needed someone who had a teaching qualification.” (MFA student)

Key themes

Workload

“..combining it with a Masters was hard to do the work, more than I was expecting so I didn't really feel the benefit until I finished” (MFA student)

Value of students with staff mixed cohort

“It’s probably is easier to keep them apart, in future this course could have some different learning outcomes so it could be better to keep them separate (ADC manager)

 

Key themes

Key themes

Communication between ADC and Faculty

“I think the challenges are the ongoing communication with the faculties because we aren't in the faculty” (ADC manager)

 

Key themes

Value of and amount of teaching practice

“while you're teaching you're learning the theory behind what you're doing which is great but while we were doing it we were reflecting critically, which is what writers do anyway” (MFA student)

 

Key themes

Marketing and recruitment of students

“for us it was all about them having an aptitude for learning and teaching ….. I suppose, my concern is about offering the course to people that would come along - but actually not everybody is cut out for teaching” (ADC lecturer)

 

Key themes

Career choice and networking

“I have paid for this qualification and really got my foot in the door, that's what I really got out of it” (MA student)

Further thematic analysis using Nvivo (CAQDAS package), Nodes

Further thematic analysis using Nvivo (CAQDAS package), Nodes and Sources

Changes made to date:

• Better communication across course teams (Contract of agreement)

• MA course liaison on L and T team

• Separation of staff and student cohorts

• Development of pre -course information leaflet re PgCert

• Review of ‘structured supported’ opportunities

• Dedicated workshops for writing development

References:

Bazeley, P. (2002). The evolution of a project involving an integrated analysis of structured qualitative and quantitative data: From N3 to NVivo. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 5(3), 229-243.

Brand, A. (2007), ‘The long and winding road: professional development in further and higher education’. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 31 (1), 7-16 .

Bryman, A. (2001) Social Research Methods (3rd Ed). Oxford, Oxford University Press

Fielding, N.G. & Lee, R.M. (2002). New patterns in the adoption and use of qualitative software. Field Methods, 14(2), 197–216.

King, A. (2008) Using software to analyse qualitative data. In Knight, A. & Ruddock L. (Eds), Advance Research Methods in Building Environments (pp. 133-143). Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Powell, R.A. & Single, H.M. (1996), ‘Focus Groups’, Int J Qual Health Care, 8(5), 499-504.

Simons, H. (2009), Case Study Research in Practice. London, SAGA Publications Ltd